Just a couple of months before UConn won its first national title in 1999, Jim Calhoun took his Huskies to Stanford. They played the game without Richard Hamilton, who was suffering from a thigh bruise. While Hamilton watched, an ill and dehydrated Kevin Freeman fought his way through a big victory by getting intravenous fluids on the bench during the game.

One can imagine how annoyed Calhoun was with a star player who couldn't play through a bruise while his teammate was taking needles in his arms just to play.

Fourteen years later, Kevin Ollie seems to have reached a similar point with Shabazz Napier. The UConn coach is sympathetic to his guard's left shoulder bruise, but if he's on the floor today when the Huskies (12-5, 2-3 Big East) take on Rutgers (12-6, 3-4) at the XL Center, the sympathy won't show.

"You're going to have nicks and bruises that you're going to play through," Ollie said Saturday, exactly a week since the Huskies last played. "We're going to be cautious, not having him out there where he can get hurt severely. We've got to have a balance.

"But he's got to understand if it is a pain he can play through, it's just mental. Hopefully, he can get over it."

Napier was extremely limited in last week's loss at Pittsburgh. He couldn't dribble with his left hand, and as a result, didn't even attempt to get into the teeth of the Pitt defense. The Huskies had three days off from practice during the week and Napier was able to practice late in the week, though he stayed out of contact box-out drills.

Certainly the Huskies are a much different team without a healthy Napier, who is expected to play today. In Rutgers, UConn faces a team that is also mostly guard-oriented with limitations on the interior. It is also a game that starts a string of five straight winnable games for the Huskies. It could really help them forget the two-game losing streak they are riding.

They've had time to rest, heal and think about the direction the remainder of the season will take. Unfortunately for UConn, that direction rests largely on what Napier can and can't do.

"It is frustrating," Napier said. "It's teaching me to be patient, understanding that my health is important and making sure I'm ready to play for my teammates 100 percent."

Effort from everybody has not been an issue, save for the first 20 minutes against Pittsburgh. The Huskies appeared disinterested in that half, but rebounded in the second half to erase a 14-point deficit to tie the game. That would be "rebounded" in the metaphorical sense.

The Huskies haven't rebounded, in the basketball sense, much at all this year. As has been the case throughout, Ollie focused much of the practice time on rebounding to go along with the pick-and-roll defense that was not good the last time the Huskies played.

It is the one thing that has really hampered UConn this season. Seventeen games deep, little has changed.

"You've got to hit first and go get the basketball," Ollie said. "That's the only thing rebounding is, desire and heart. You've got to go get it. That's the only way we're going to win games in the Big East."

Even in that regard it would be helpful to have a completely health Napier. He is the team's second-leading rebounder, pulling down 4.3 per game. He barely trails DeAndre Daniels, who averages 4.4 rebounds per game to lead the Huskies.

More important than anything, the Huskies need to find a way to get themselves on a small streak here with a highly manageable schedule in front of them.

"We want to get back on track," Napier said. "We've only got a little bit of the season left, so we want to end on a good note. This is the second half of the season so you want to go out there and give it your all."

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